Why do planets have elliptical orbits?
In: Physics
If they started perfectly circular they would stay that way. They dont, and the imperfections mean at some point gravity is stronger along the planets path, and will speed the object up. This creates an even larger imperfection in the circle, and it just goes from there. Hopefully this is a bit of an easier way to understand it without all the complex crap about systems at equilibrium.
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